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Dow Chemical blamed for Bhopal gas tragedy

Last updated on: December 02, 2006 13:17 IST
Scores of campaigners seeking justice for victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy, one of the world's worst industrial catastrophe, held demonstrations in pouring rain near the Indian Consulate here demanding that Dow Chemical take responsibility for clearing up the disaster site and provide adequate compensation for survivors.

Dow Chemical is now owner of Union Carbide from whose plant the deadly gas had leaked on December 2, 1984, killing and injuring thousands.

They also held mock funerals of Dow Chemical leadership on Friday.

The Campaign, an umbrella organisation on which several human rights bodies are represented, said similar funeral marches will be organised in seven cities across the United States over the next six days and its members would hold candle vigils to remember the victims.

Besides, its supporters in Chicago and Washington would send members of the Board of Dow Chemical orange jumpsuits that prisoners wear to highlight the fugitive status of Union Carbide in the Indian courts.

The activists say Carbide's owner Dow Chemical is to blame for daily deaths in Bhopal due to its refusal to clean up the disaster site and provide adequate care to the survivors.

Ryan Bodanyi, Students for Bhopal US Coordinator, said Dow's 2001 purchase of Union Carbide transferred legal liability and moral culpability for the clean-up of contaminated waste in Bhopal to Dow.

"Carbide put a time bomb in the middle of a crowded city and called it an accident when it went off. Changing their name does not remove their guilt nor their liabilities," Bodanyi added.

The Campaign estimates that 22,000 people are already dead and says yet Dow wants to deny all responsibility and wants the Indian government to pay millions of dollars for the clean of its mess in Bhopal.

Union Carbide's internal documents, the protesters say, show that the company cut corners on safety and maintenance in order to save money. The night of the Bhopal Disaster, none of the six safety systems at the Union Carbide plant were functional.

Following a partial 1989 settlement, Union Carbide fled India, leaving behind unresolved criminal liabilities and several thousand metric tons of hazardous waste, which has poisoned the drinking water of 20,000 Bhopal residents, they said.

Dharam Shourie in New York
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